H'iS 


American  (jlljurrijea  an&  tite  European  War 
3V  Message  feottfuflje  (fljurrij  Peace  Union 


February  8,  1915. 

To  the  Churches  and  Clergy  of  America  : 

In  this  time  of  tumult,  when  more  than  half  the  population  of  the  globe  is  involved  in 
war,  the  Church  of  God  should  counsel : 

Moiteratitm.  Partisanship  is  adding  fuel  to  fires  of  passion  which  already  are  too 
hot.  Clergymen  should  allay  prejudice,  not  intensify  it.  Each  of  the  warring  nations  believes 
in  the  justice  of  its  cause.  Their  disputes  are  of  long  standing,  involving  all  the  governments 
concerned,  and  their  full  history  is  yet  to  be  written.  In  a  period  of  such  tense  feeling, 
it  is  not  easy  to  unravel  the  tangled  skein  of  motives  and  events.  It  is  a  grievous  thing  that 
there  is  war  between  pennies  whom  we  respect  and  count  our  friends.  In  this  calamitous  hour, 
denunciation  of  either  side  assumes  a  superhuman  knowledge  of  complex  policies  and  purposes, 
imperils  the  influence  of  our  Government  in  promoting  peace,  aggravates  a  quarrel  which  we 
should  help  to  abate,  creates  dissensions  among  our  own  people,  inflames  a  war  spirit  in 
America,  and  gives  force  to  the  criticism  that  the  Church  has  abdicated  its  sacred  function  as 
the  maker  of  peace  and  concord. 

Penitence.  We  should  realize  not  only  that  each  of  the  warring  nations  has  helped 
to  create  the  conditions  of  which  the  War  is  a  tragic  expression  but  that  these  conditions  char¬ 
acterize  Americans  as  well  as  Europeans.  We  are  quite  as  belligerent  in  temper  as  other  men. 
We  should  condemn  the  causes  of  war;  but  we  should  look  for  them  not  so  much  in  state  papers 
as  in  the  fears  and  prejudices  and  rivalries  which  are  common  to  men  everywhere  except  as 
they  are  influenced  by  the  divine  spirit.  Our  own  freedom  from  militarism  has  been  due  to 
protecting  oceans  rather  than  to  superior  virtue.  The  present  clamor  for  an  armament  to  resist 
a  possible  attack  is  prompted,  not  by  peril,  but  by  the  disposition  to  echo  on  our  side  of  the  sea 
the  cries  which  have  been  heard  in  Europe  for  years,  and  it  is  engendering  the  same  suspicions 
that  have  wrecked  the  relations  of  Germany  and  Great  Britain.  Are  we  to  repeat  the  policy 
which  is  drenching  the  Continent  with  blood?  This  is  the  time  to  prepare,  not  for  war,  but  for 
peace. 

aialtlj.  God  only  can  T'speak  peace”  to  the  nations.  He  alone  can  recreate  a  chaotic 
world.  Materialistic  civilization  has  developed  mind  and  energy  rather  than  conscience.  The 
peoples  whose  universities  are  the  greatest,  whose  statesmen  and  philosophers  the  most  famous, 
whose  industrial  achievements  the  most  advanced,  whose  armies  and  navies  the  most  colossal, 
are  the  very  ones  that  are  fighting.  Modem  science  has  equipped  race  hatred  with  deadlier 


weapons  and  thus  increased  its  power  for  ruin.  A  world  order  built  up  by  secular  education 
and  dependent  on  force  has  collapsed.  Christianity  has  not  failed;  but  nations  have  failed  to 
be  Christian.  The  ideas  underlying  this  War  spring  from  a  savage  interpretation  of  life  and 
directly  contravene  the  teachings  of  Jesus.  The  paramount  need,  therefore,  is  a  new  interpre¬ 
tation  in  the  light  of  a  fresh  discovery  of  God  and  of  what  He  requires  of  man.  This  need  tran¬ 
scends  questions  of  national  policy  and  armament.  The  settlement  of  existing  strife  awaits 
its  fulfillment.  There  is  no  other  hope  for  humanity.  The  task  is  stupendous ;  but  “all  things 
are  possible  to  him  that  believeth.”  Have  we  faith  to  believe,  faith  to  draw  boldly  upon  the 
undeveloped  resources  of  the  Church  in  God  for  the  reconstruction  of  the  world? 

— international  righteousness.  Religion  too  often  has  been  conceived 
as  so  local  and  personal  that  it  had  no  relation  to  national  policies.  Men  in  their  corporate 
capacity  as  a  state  have  ignored  moral  laws  that  as  citizens  they  uphold.  The  time  has  come 
to  insist  that  the  law  of  the  jungle  should  be  replaced  by  the  law  of  humanity;  that  there  is  no 
double  standard  of  ethics ;  that  there  cannot  be  one  rule  for  individuals  and  another  for  their 
governments;  that  deceiving  others,  oppressing  the  weak,  stealing  territory,  destroying  prop- 
erty,  and  murdering  rivals,  acts  which  are  criminal  between  men,  are  no  less  wrong  between 
nations;  that  the  real  greatness  of  a  people  lies  not  in  regiments  and  battleships  but  in  justice 
and  forbearance ;  and  that  “righteousness  exalteth  a  nation,  but  sin  is  a  reproach  to  any  people.” 

Urfltl)Sllj005,  We  profess  to  believe  in  the  fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brotherhood 
of  man,  that  “God  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations.”  Why  has  not  this  gospel  wrought  its 

normal  work  among  the  nations?  Why  are  men  trying  to  settle  by  slaughter  what  can  be 

settled  only  by  mutual  good-will?  Because  they  have  not  accepted  the  implications  of  their 
belief ;  because  they  regard  one  another  as  foes  rather  than  as  friends.  Clearly  then  it  is  the 
mission  of  the  Churches  to  inculcate  the  principles  of  mutual  respect  and  confidence,  to  make 
real  the  faith  that  we  preach.  Let  us  keep  out  of  the  wordy  warfare  about  incidents  which, 
however  lamentable,  are  the  concomitants  of  all  wars,  and  concentrate  our  efforts  upon  the  major 
evangel  of  divine  brotherhood.  When  nations  are  walking  among  heaps  of  powder  with  lighted 
matches,  an  explosion  is  inevitable  sooner  or  later.  The  vital  question  concerns  not  so  much 
the  dropping  of  a  match  as  the  presence  of  the  powder.  Why  was  it  there?  If  nations  fear 

and  hate  one  another,  they  will  fight  whether  they  annually  add  one  or  a  dozen  battleships  to 

their  navy,  or  a  thousand  or  a  hundred  thousand  men  to  their  army.  The  Golden  Rule  must  be 
made  effective  in  international  intercourse.  This  is  the  urgent  duty  of  the  churches,  and 
American  churches  now  have  free  opportunity  to  speak.  They  should  be  the  channel  through 
which  the  grace  of  God  can  become  operative.  They  should  make  clear  the  distinction  between 
the  teachings  of  Jesus  and  so-called  modern  civilization,  cease  baptizing  national  pride  and  self¬ 
ishness  with  the  name  of  patriotism,  put  forth  greater  effort  to  make  the  divine  spirit  leaven 
all  human  relationships,  and  proclaim  the  missionary  message  of  international  Christianity,  of 
altruistic  ministries  to  other  peoples,  of  God  as  the  universal  Father  instead  of  a  national  deity, 
of  the  unity  of  the  human  race,  of  religion  as  “the  power  of  God  unto  salvation”  and  the 
antithesis  of  aggression  and  brute  force. 

S'xjmpattjy.  For  our  brethren  on  both  sides,  many  of  whom  are  fighting  more  in 
grief  than  in  anger;  for  the  sick  and  the  wounded;  for  parents  bereft  of  their  sons,  wives  of 
their  husbands,  and  children  of  their  fathers.  Let  us  not  complain  that  in  this  era  of  agony  we 
are  called  upon  to  give  largely  of  our  means,  but  let  us  be  humbly  grateful  that  we  can  help 
our  brothers  in  their  time  of  utter  need. 

ijjIfSIJ??.  That  the  spirit  of  God  may  so  pervade  the  governments  and  peoples  now 
at  war  that  peace  may  be  speedily  established  on  a  basis  of  mutual  forbearance  and  love ;  that 
with  humble  confession  of  our  sins,  we  seek  a  fuller  understanding  of  the  divine  purpose  for 


men  and  its  more  consistent  expression  in  the  life  of  nations;  that  the  brutal  and  selfish  ele¬ 
ments  in  our  civilization  may  be  eliminated;  that  all  men  may  realize  that  they  are  brothers; 
that  all  who  are  ministering  to  the  physical  and  spiritual  needs  of  the  soldiers  and  their  suffer¬ 
ing  wives  and  children  may  be  given  needful  grace  and  strength ;  that  the  God  of  all  pity  and 
comfort  may  help  the  sick,  the  wounded  and  the  dying,  and  guide  the  sorrowing  peoples  who 
are  groping  their  way  in  the  darkness  that  has  fallen  upon  them ;  and  that  out  of  the  tumult  and 
strife  of  this  present  time  the  longings  of  a  stricken  world  may  be  realized  in  an  era  of  uni¬ 
versal  righteousness. 

“And  the  work  of  righteousness  shall  be  peace.” 


Peter  Ainslie,  Minister  Christian  Temple,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Arthur  Judson  Brown,  Secretary  of  The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
the  U.  S.  A. 

Francis  E.  Clark,  President  of  the  United  Society  of  Christian  Endeavor  and  of  the  World’s  Christian 
Endeavor  Union. 

William  H.  P.  Faunce,  President  of  Brown  University. 

James  Cardinal  Gibbons. 

John  J.  Glennon,  Archbishop  of  St.  Louis. 

David  H.  Greer,  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  Diocese  of  New  York. 

Frank  Oliver  Hall,  Pastor  of  the  Church  of  the  Divine  Paternity,  New  York. 

Eugene  R.  Hendrix,  Senior  Bishop  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  and  Ex-President  Federal  Coun¬ 
cil  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America. 

Emil  J.  Hirsch,  Rabbi  of  the  Chicago  Sinai  Congregation,  Professor  of  Rabbinica  in  the  University  of 
Chicago. 

Hamilton  Holt,  Editor  of  The  Independent. 

William  I.  Hull,  Professor  of  History  and  International  Relations,  Swarthmore  College. 

Charles  E.  Jefferson,  Pastor  of  the  Broadway  Tabernacle. 

Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones,  Minister  All  Souls  Church,  Chicago,  and  Editor  Unity. 

William  Lawrence,  Bishop  of  Massachusetts. 

Frederick  Lynch,  Secretary  of  The  Church  Peace  Union  and  Editor  of  The  Christian  Work. 

Shailer  Mathews,  Dean  of  the  Divinity  School,  Chicago  University,  and  President  of  the  Federal  Coun¬ 
cil  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America. 

Charles  S.  Macfarland,  General  Secretary  of  the  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America. 
Marcus  M.  Marks,  President  of  the  Borough  of  Manhattan,  City  of  New  York. 

Edwin  D.  Mead,  Chief  Director  of  the  World  Peace  Foundation. 

William  Pierson  Merrill,  Pastor  of  the  Brick  Presbyterian  Church,  New  York  City. 

John  R.  Mott,  Chairman  of  the  Continuation  Committee  of  the  Edinborough  Conference. 

George  A.  Plimpton. 

Junius  B.  Remensnyder,  Ex-President  of  the  General  Synod  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  the  United 
States  of  America. 

Henry  Wade  Rogers,  Judge  U.  S.  Circuit  Court  of  Appeals,  New  York,  and  Dean  of  Yale  University 
School  of  Law,  New  Haven. 

Robert  E.  Speer. 

Francis  Lynde  Stetson. 

James  J.  Walsh,  Professor  of  Physiological  Psychology,  Cathedral  College,  New  York  City. 

Luther  B.  Wilson,  Resident  Bishop  at  New  York. 


New  York,  N.  Y. 


1 5  £> 


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